The crater had become a training ground.
Sasha stood at the center, her arms crossed, her eyes moving between the three men in front of her. Derek. Leo. Jordan. They had been at this for hours, pushing themselves, failing, getting back up.
"Again," Sasha said.
Derek stepped forward. The energy around him—the static buzz that had been building since the first session—flowed upward, wrapping around his body like a second skin. It didn't harden him. It didn't make him stronger. It did something else.
Sasha nodded at Leo. "Attack him."
Leo moved. Lightning crackled around his fists, red and hungry. He threw a punch aimed at Derek's chest.
Derek's body moved on its own.
He dodged—not by thinking, not by planning, but by instinct. His feet shifted, his torso twisted, and Leo's fist passed through empty air.
Leo tried again. Another punch. A kick. A rapid series of strikes.
Derek dodged them all. His movements were fluid, effortless, like his body knew exactly where the attacks would land before they were thrown.
"His dodging with his instinct," Sasha thought. "His not thinking. His just reacting."
Derek stopped. The energy around him faded. He looked at his hands, flexed his fingers.
"It felt... different from last time," he said.
"Good different?"
"Yeah." He nodded slowly. "Good different."
Sasha turned to Jordan. "You're next."
───
Zoey's eyes opened.
The sky was grey. The air was cold. Her body ached, but she was alive. She sat up slowly, blinking, trying to piece together what had happened.
Ab 2 Eva sat nearby, her expression calm, her eyes fixed on something in the distance. Eva was beside her, her clothes torn, her face tired. Wolfen leaned against a broken piece of rubble, his arms crossed, his golden eyes half-closed.
Zoey rubbed her face. "What happened?"
Eva turned to her. "You don't remember?"
"Bits." Zoey's voice was rough, still waking up. "I remember... a lot of destruction. And Eva—" She looked at Eva. "You were different."
Ab 2 Eva spoke. "She's an Alpha."
Eva shook her head. "I didn't know."
"That's not possible." Ab 2 Eva's voice was flat. "You should have known. You should have felt it."
"I didn't. I didn't know anything."
Zoey listened to them argue, her head still foggy. She looked down at her arm. The one that had been severed.
It was whole.
"Am I an Alpha?" she asked, her voice still rough, still waking. "I'm not even a hybrid."
Ab 2 Eva and Eva stopped arguing. Wolfen opened his eyes.
They all looked at Zoey.
She looked back at them, confused. "What?"
No one answered.
Zoey blinked. "Did I say something weird?"
"Yes," Eva said.
"No," Wolfen said.
"The silence is the weird part," Zoey muttered.
Ab 2 Eva's voice was careful. "You said you're not a hybrid."
"I'm not."
"Then how are you an Alpha?"
Zoey stared at her. Opened her mouth. Closed it. Then she looked at her hands, at her whole arm, at the body that had done things she still didn't understand.
"I don't know," she said.
The silence returned.
Wolfen closed his eyes again. Eva looked at the ground. Ab 2 Eva studied Zoey like she was a puzzle she couldn't quite solve.
Zoey sighed. "I just woke up. Give me a minute."